1. Field
The embodiments described herein relate generally to systems for sending radiation. More particularly, the described embodiments relate to radiation dosimetry using nanostructure-based devices.
2. Description
Many medical and industrial scenarios benefit from the measurement and/or imaging of delivered radiation dose. In the case of radiation therapy, such measurement/imaging may ensure accurate dose delivery to appropriate structures within a patient, may enable accurate quality assurance (QA) of a radiation delivery device and its collimation mechanism, may provide dose-related feedback to a servo system of the radiation delivery device, and may establish a record of treatment including delivered radiation dose measurements and delivered radiation field shapes. Radiation dose measurement/imaging may also be employed to capture internal structural details of an imaged object, to determine the concentration of radioactive substances within an object, to investigate particle physics, to detect the presence (or determine the dose) of a particle or photon beam traversing a volume of interest, and to detect radiological contamination.
Conventional systems to measure dose include ionization chambers, radiographic and radiochromic films, thermoluminescent detectors, silicon diodes and MOSFET transistors. Radiation field shapes may be obtained using two-dimensional arrays of ionization chambers, photodiodes, photoactive transistors, MOSFETs or diodes, or gas-electron multiplier elements. Two-dimensional arrays of ionization chambers are most commonly used for imaging purposes. The spatial resolution of the chambers and, consequently, of the arrays, is not suitable for many applications.